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I for one, along with many others I'm sure, feel as though there is some untapped power within the Battle Spot environment. There is substantial evidence for this idea in the form of one commonality for most tiers, Battle Spot included: there always seems to be one or more new-fangled, hyped up sets that weren't originally main-stay or seen as "viable" by the community, but somehow has taken the metagame by storm. This can be seen in DPP OU (with Special Lucario transitioning to SD Lucario, Heatran eventually running items other than Choice Scarf, and the influx of ChestoRest Kingdra) in ADV (with the vaunted TyraniBoah now becoming almost an urban myth in comparison to Special and DD Tyranitar, and the increasing popularity of SupeRachi) and in BW OU (with the advent of SubSalac Terrakion, SubDisable Gengar, and ChestoRest Volcarona). Yes, some of these sets may have been found early on with respect to the creation of the tier or fairly recently, the point is, though, that there seems to be an endless supply of effective and potent sets out there yet to be discovered, especially factoring in metagame swings and the possible tier shifts. The purpose of this project will be to systematically subject each and every Battle Spot pokemon to a collective body of research in an attempt to uncover these "hidden gems", so to speak, and hopefully spark some creativity throughout the Battle Spot community.

The Process:

Each week, I will choose a different Battle Spot Pokemon, sometimes chosen by random, sometimes chosen by curiosity, of which participants will try to personally create a new set for that is not already on-site or in the process of being put on-site. Participants will be given 4 days from the time I post a new Pokemon to create their set, with discussion about the particular sets being promoted throughout, a vote will be held to choose which user's set represented the most creative and simultaneously competitively viable set to utilize in the current Battle Spot metagame, this will be open for 3 days. Once the votes are tallied and a winner is crowned, the set will be archived in the OP and the process will start all over again for the next pokemon specimen.

What are we looking for?:

Specifically, I want to stress the importance of the balance between creativity and viability when picking a set to post for the Pokemon in question. There's a very fine line between a "creative" set and a "gimmick", and this project is not meant to produce gimmicks, rather emphasize the ability to think outside the box when using a specific Pokemon in order to maximize it's potential. Having said that, I would also like to deviate from simple one move / item changes. For example, using Lum Berry over Life Orb on an SD Garchomp does nothing to show any untapped potential Garchomp has because we already have a basic understanding of what SD Garchomp is and does, it's just now better at dealing with status and has less power. The same goes for using Knock Off over Superpower on Belly Drum Azumarill, it doesn't yield productive discussion or results for the project. I am looking for sets that test what we think we know about checks or counters, so-called standards, and what it means to be viable. Maybe a particular option for a Pokemon looks inferior at first glance for that particular pokemon, but dig deeper and try and find what it might mean in the big picture, for the entire team.

Pretty much if it would make it onto a main set of an analysis then it is considered to be standard.

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Line em up, knock em down. This Fini set aims to stallbreak bulkier teams by chipping away HP with Nature's Madness, then finishing off the weakened opponent with a powerful 130 power Brine. I'm sure this is a thing, because Tapu Fini doesn't have a lot of undiscovered viable options as it is, but it's a nice way to make use of an underutilised move. Full physdef for coping with big hitters like Blaziken (a mon that more offensive Fini sets actually have trouble checking if it boosts or has Thunder Punch) and Mega Salamence. Taunt to aid in stallbreaking and Moonblast for a consistent damage option. Many Pokémon on fat teams will have healing items, so Guardian of Alola is a really cool way to try and keep certain things under 50% so that repeated Nature's Madnesses aren't as necessary.

Kind of standard Fini, but i do like this set. The spread is to outspeed Celesteela, taunt it and prevent Seeds; it's also good vs opposing Finis in the Calm Mind wars. It has 1 point more SpDef than its Def to deal with Download P2 better

Maybe a tad gimmicky, but it can be an effective sweeper breaker. It lives a +2 Mimikyu Shadow Claw, can Haze in return, then set up Reflect and Taunt at its leisure. This set can be easily adapted for those few special sweepers as well.

Line em up, knock em down. This Fini set aims to stallbreak bulkier teams by chipping away HP with Nature's Madness, then finishing off the weakened opponent with a powerful 130 power Brine. I'm sure this is a thing, because Tapu Fini doesn't have a lot of undiscovered viable options as it is, but it's a nice way to make use of an underutilised move. Full physdef for coping with big hitters like Blaziken (a mon that more offensive Fini sets actually have trouble checking if it boosts or has Thunder Punch) and Mega Salamence. Taunt to aid in stallbreaking and Moonblast for a consistent damage option. Many Pokémon on fat teams will have healing items, so Guardian of Alola is a really cool way to try and keep certain things under 50% so that repeated Nature's Madnesses aren't as necessary.

Kind of standard Fini, but i do like this set. The spread is to outspeed Celesteela, taunt it and prevent Seeds; it's also good vs opposing Finis in the Calm Mind wars. It has 1 point more SpDef than its Def to deal with Download P2 better

Maybe a tad gimmicky, but it can be an effective sweeper breaker. It lives a +2 Mimikyu Shadow Claw, can Haze in return, then set up Reflect and Taunt at its leisure. This set can be easily adapted for those few special sweepers as well.

cant say's Z-Grass Knot. I really like all of the submissions, but being able to beat other water types is great for Fini considering it normally can not beat them, also who expects Fini to be offensive?

Congratulations to cant say for winning this week's Next Best Thing! Your submission will be logged in the Archive!

This week's subject is generation 7's best waifu: Celesteela! This is easily one of the best mons of gen 7, thanks to its great stat distribution, allowing it to fill a number of roles. So, with all that in mind, what is The Next Best Thing (TM) for Celesteela?

You have until Tuesday (10/3) at 9:00 p.m. EST (GMT-4) to post your submissions. Best of luck to everyone!

grumpy and stubborn

Before defensive Steela became the norm during pre-bank I was trying to make this work. I think it worked sick but it didn't catch on. I used an Impish version of this in No Holds Barred and it worked an absolute treat, and I feel like an offensive one could be decent in BSS. There might be a better spread (maybe a careful one) but this is mainly focussing on Flame Charge.

Fast Subseed Celesteela. After an Autotomize you upspeed the whole unboosted tier, even up to Pheromosa, and +1 mons such as Scarf Lele.
Once you're fast you can either stall your opponent with sub, losing 7% health per round, while your opponent usually loses 12% (this if the opponent can OHKO Celes, or heavily damage it) , or just fish for the 30% flinch chance of Air Slash, taking the advantage of the natural bulk and typing of this pokemon. Of course its STAB also let you hit Grass-types that are immune to the seeds.
The SpD evs are to ensure that Download boosts the attack and not the special attack.

With a Weakness Policy and Automotize boost Celesteela becomes a pretty potent sweeper, being able to tear teams apart and snowballing into a huge threat thanks to Beast Boost! The SpD evs ensure that Download boosts attack instead of special attack.

Submissions are now closed! There are to be no edits of your own Pokemon, nor are there to be any new submissions. A few quick things to note;

Voting will close on the 10/6 at 9:00pm EST (GMT-4), where the next subject will also be announced

You can't vote for your own submission

You can only change your vote once, so think carefully before doing so

You can vote even if you haven't made a submission. It is expected that you vote if you did submit yourself, but not compulsory

Before defensive Steela became the norm during pre-bank I was trying to make this work. I think it worked sick but it didn't catch on. I used an Impish version of this in No Holds Barred and it worked an absolute treat, and I feel like an offensive one could be decent in BSS. There might be a better spread (maybe a careful one) but this is mainly focussing on Flame Charge.

Fast Subseed Celesteela. After an Autotomize you upspeed the whole unboosted tier, even up to Pheromosa, and +1 mons such as Scarf Lele.
Once you're fast you can either stall your opponent with sub, losing 7% health per round, while your opponent usually loses 12% (this if the opponent can OHKO Celes, or heavily damage it) , or just fish for the 30% flinch chance of Air Slash, taking the advantage of the natural bulk and typing of this pokemon. Of course its STAB also let you hit Grass-types that are immune to the seeds.
The SpD evs are to ensure that Download boosts the attack and not the special attack.

With a Weakness Policy and Automotize boost Celesteela becomes a pretty potent sweeper, being able to tear teams apart and snowballing into a huge threat thanks to Beast Boost! The SpD evs ensure that Download boosts attack instead of special attack.

Tfa's Fire killer Steela
one of the most spectacular win factor in the 3vs3 meta is achieved when you are able to build a set that can beat threat. This is what this set does.Plus iirc it's pretty similar to the one that i suggested you in your rmt lol, so yeah.